Liam had several reasons for raising his hand and refusing Pyon's offer to contact an Exorcist.
First, the ability of the eight-armed shadow beast parasitizing his body actually sounded pretty useful based on Pyon's analysis.
Second, since it was similar to a Kakin Hui Guo Rou guardian spirit beast, even though he couldn't completely control it, the "guardian" attribute meant it probably wouldn't harm him as the host. Pyon's analysis had proven the thing had a counterattack ability, meaning it only activated when he as the host got attacked, or when it sensed hostility directed at itself. The aura it absorbed while parasitizing couldn't keep up with his natural recovery rate anyway.
Third, and this was something Liam didn't tell Netero and the others:
He had an intuition that he could control the parasitic Nen beast on his body to some extent. He hadn't found a chance to test it yet, but his gut told him he was right.
A Nen beast he could probably control a little, with decent abilities, that didn't burden him too much? There didn't seem to be any rush to get rid of it.
"Are you sure?" Pyon looked at him. "If you want to remove it, now is your best chance. After all, President Netero is here to help. If you regret it later, it won't be so convenient. There will be a fee. A sky-high price."
Liam smiled. "If I regret it later, I'll just join your Hunter Association and maybe become Association President. That way you won't charge me sky-high prices except for funeral expenses, right?"
"Hehehe." Netero laughed.
Pyon, usually so composed, immediately darkened when she heard this. She snapped her laptop shut with a click, glared at Liam, and said, "If you want to challenge President Netero, you're eight hundred years too early."
Just like in the manga, the Hunter Association's cabinet "Twelve Zodiacs"—except for the Rat Pariston and the Boar Ging Freecss—the other ten were all President Netero's biggest fans. Die-hard followers, even. They didn't hesitate to change their daily attire, behavior, and even personality to match their respective zodiac totems assigned by Netero.
That dog nose Cheadle wore was probably either a Transmutation ability or some kind of prosthetic attachment.
Gel the Snake was a Conjurer, sure, but before she became one of the Twelve Zodiacs, she probably didn't have a fighting style based on turning her arms into snakes.
Pyon looked like a shut-in who spent too much time online. In her early years, she probably didn't wear bunny ear headbands and dress like a bunny girl.
The same went for Ginta the Sheep and Kanzai the Tiger that Liam had met earlier. The former's body was so hairy it exploded like wool, while the latter practically had the character for "king" tattooed on his forehead with his hair spiked up all day...
On the way back, Pyon kept a straight face, pressing buttons on her phone and ignoring Liam.
She wasn't actually still angry. But someone had just lost their temper in an uncontrolled outburst, and afterward felt they'd overreacted. The President himself hadn't taken it seriously. But she'd lost her cool, like she'd suddenly put on a melodramatic performance, and now couldn't quite get off that stage. So she just turned to her phone and surfed the internet to play games instead.
Liam actually didn't care. When he'd recalled Ginta earlier, he couldn't help but think of Menchi. He wondered where that young Gourmet Hunter was wandering around now.
Come to think of it, Menchi's cooking really was delicious...
"Speaking of which, where's Kurapika?" Liam touched the languid Jaku on his shoulder. "Let's see if he's handled his business yet, Shizuku."
After saying goodbye to Netero and the others for now, Liam took Shizuku toward the front mountain.
On the path, the eight-armed black shadow flew across the ground like a living shade and appeared behind him. From a distance, the sight was... particularly awkward.
Shizuku looked at him, then at the eight-armed figure hovering behind him. "Won't that be inconvenient?"
Anyone else with Nen would spot this thing immediately.
"I need to find a way to control it a little. Ideally, I can put it away when I don't need it." Liam said as he walked. "Just because you're eating my aura doesn't mean you get to dangle in front of me all day. Attacking when it's not necessary isn't just an eyesore—it's a hindrance."
Shizuku asked curiously, "How would you do that?"
Liam pondered. "Since it feeds on my aura and parasitizes me..."
From the corner of his eye, he glanced at the droopy little gray bird on his shoulder. The latter perked up with alarm and tilted its head to look at him in confusion.
A sapphire glow flashed across Liam's eyes. He gave an order to Jaku through the Star Mark: "Protect your Star Mark. Don't let anyone destroy it."
The rose-gold pentagram mark on Jaku's body glowed faintly. Liam's special aura sprouted and took root like a seed, mixing into the rock sparrow's own relatively weak aura.
Liam followed his instinct and focused his thoughts.
The eight-armed black shadow swaying behind him like a vengeful spirit floated around and flew toward the little gray bird on his shoulder.
The rock sparrow startled and flapped its wings, taking off.
The eight-armed shadow chased after it, its size shrinking by more than half accordingly.
The sparrow just flew and fled.
The shadow just flew and chased.
A bird's cry that sounded thoroughly violated echoed through the air.
After a while, Jaku flew down with a series of indignant chirps, proudly showing Liam the eight-armed shadow now attached to its body.
A dark silhouette like berserker's armor floated around it. Eight arms swayed gently like tail feathers. Looking from a distance, you couldn't tell if the flying thing was a phoenix or a bird-headed octopus.
Liam projected his consciousness and switched to first-person possession mode. He took over the rock sparrow's body and adjusted its aura flow.
The visible aura on the bird's body gradually weakened...
A bird's aura nodes were different from a human's. Liam relived the experience of being clumsy when controlling aura.
This was what he'd experienced during the first two minutes when he'd initially started practicing Nen.
After that, he'd never been this awkward or inefficient again.
If it were his own body, Liam could switch between Zetsu and Ken several times per second. But with Jaku, it took him half a minute to barely seal all the aura nodes and enter Zetsu state.
The instant he succeeded, the eight-armed black shadow he'd summoned to parasitize the rock sparrow—the shadow resembling a phoenix's tail feathers—gradually faded away until it disappeared completely.
"It didn't come back to me. Perfect." Liam nodded with satisfaction.
This way, when Liam didn't need the thing, he could lock it inside Jaku's body. When he needed it, he could hang it on himself.
"Remember this feeling. It's called Zetsu." Liam tapped Jaku's head with his finger.
The rock sparrow regained consciousness, twisted its head in dissatisfaction, and preened the feathers on its neck with its beak. But the aura in its body still maintained the Zetsu state from just now.
Using the command control of Star Mark, Liam could force Jaku to remember Zetsu with its body.
However, he couldn't keep the rock sparrow in Zetsu all the time. Aside from the fact that in the eyes of other Nen users, a bird with no aura would be suspicious, the risk of Zetsu itself required attention.
When entering Zetsu, body and mind had zero defensive capability.
Even the Ant King Meruem—if he dared to actively enter Zetsu, a slap from any properly trained Hunter could destroy him physically and mentally. Guaranteed he wouldn't get back up.
So for the rest of the journey, Liam tried teaching Jaku to release a small amount of aura on its body surface.
Zetsu meant surface aura was at zero, and the parasitic Nen beast would disappear if it had no aura to feed on.
When the rock sparrow lifted Zetsu and released aura, the eight-armed shadow on its body also appeared bit by bit.
To control the aura in Jaku's body to a point where it wouldn't be as dangerous as Zetsu, nor would it cause the eight-armed shadow to fully manifest, Liam spent considerable effort. He even switched to direct possession several times, using the rock sparrow's body to perform micro-adjustments. Finally he controlled the surface aura to about a quarter of normal Ten levels.
Such a small amount of aura was equivalent to the state after a rock sparrow had flown ten kilometers without stopping. Meaning a lot of stamina consumed, but not to the point of being called Zetsu.
Having such a thin layer of aura on the body meant at least some defensive power. If there was an unexpected impact, there'd be enough buffer to release this state and manifest the eight-armed shadow beast residing in the body...
"Eight-armed black shadow beast... that's annoying to say every time." Liam pondered. "Can't I give you a name?"
Walking side by side through the corridor of the front mountain hotel, he looked at Shizuku.
Most of the day had passed. After Gel's detoxification, everyone in the hotel should be mostly awake by now. Along the way, they saw many people gathering together with confused expressions, muttering as if wondering what had happened. Some were chatting and having fun, picking up instruments in the lobby and playing together.
Netero should be able to handle the situation at the Sensui Mountain summit. Liam estimated Netero would probably pretend nothing had happened and let the art exhibition continue to its conclusion.
The real disappearance of Sky Master actually had more impact on the martial arts competition at the back mountain.
Shizuku said, "Okay. What name?"
"Hmm..." Liam pondered. "'I'll Still Be Wandering When You Receive This Letter'?"
Shizuku looked puzzled. "Isn't that too long?"
"Then shorten it."
Shizuku thought for a while. "'Octopus'?"
"Maybe... call it 'Phoenix Seeking Phoenix.'" Liam glanced at the rock sparrow, which was curiously chasing its own tail, spinning in the air trying to catch it.
After Liam's efforts, its normal state now had weaker surface aura than usual, just a thin layer. Therefore the Nen beast parasitizing its body had also become faint, with only eight small shadowy hands vaguely attached to its tail feathers. Except for looking a bit longer and darker, it was no different from its usual appearance.
"No, no. The temperament's too different." Liam shook his head.
"'Reflection.'" Shizuku said. "How about this?"
"That's good!" Liam smiled. "Let's call it 'Reflection.'"
Thump. He knocked on Kurapika's door. No one responded for a long time, so he simply pushed the door open and entered.
The other bodyguards weren't there. Only Kurapika sat on the sofa, holding a square glass jar in his hands. It was full of some kind of solution, with a pair of red human eyeballs floating inside.
Kurapika had his back to the door, making his expression invisible.
On the carpet next to the sofa, a decent-looking young man lay unconscious. His long hair was messy, the carpet disheveled around him. His mouth was crooked, eyes slanted. Pain and fear remained frozen on his face.
This person was probably the young painter Masuo Harrison who'd bought the pair of Scarlet Eyes from the gang leader's son. Liam had no idea what Kurapika had done to him...
Liam looked closer and found almost no aura in the man's body.
The little gray bird swayed around the room, flew to the coffee table in front of Kurapika, and tilted its head to look at him.
"You're back... Huh?" Kurapika suddenly noticed something strange about the rock sparrow. "What's wrong with its tail..."
"Is it that easy to spot?" Liam wondered.
"He's very close by. He is very familiar with what Jaku looked like before." Shizuku explained seriously.
Kurapika smiled, sighed, raised his hand and materialized his dolphin bookshelf. He pulled out the sixth book—"Resurrection."
The pages spread open before him with a flutter.
With a complicated expression, Kurapika pressed the retrieved pair of Scarlet Eyes into the book and stored them there for the time being.
Liam figured this kid had probably been inspired by Shizuku's Blinky to come up with a space-based storage ability. But judging by which book he'd chosen, Kurapika had probably restricted himself to the condition that he could—and could only—store Scarlet Eyes. That limitation was the price for the storage function.
"Anyway, this is the situation..."
Liam sat down across from him, spread his arms, and casually explained what had happened.
After listening, Kurapika pointed out, "All this is based on the premise that this parasitic Nen beast is really, as you guessed, a guardian spirit beast similar to the Kakin Hui Guo Rou royal family. And that your information on guardian spirit beasts is reliable... Otherwise, the danger of this thing would be unpredictable."
"Should be fine. Want to try it?"
Liam sat on the sofa with his legs crossed. With a thought, he released control of the Star Mark on Jaku.
Suddenly, "Reflection" disappeared from the little gray bird's body and soon slowly floated up behind Liam, spreading its eight dark arms.
Under normal circumstances, Kurapika definitely wouldn't be willing to take such a risk. The so-called gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall.
But now, with the Star Mark, he was basically semi-immortal...
After Kurapika finished considering, the aura in his body suddenly surged, transforming into a giant skeleton hand that grabbed at Liam across from him.
The sound of a chainsaw came from the side. The spinning blade struck the skeleton hand formed by aura, and fragments of Nen immediately scattered.
Kurapika looked helpless. "Shizuku?"
Shizuku held the chainsaw calmly. "The activation condition for Reflection's ability is the blood of you, the attacker, Kurapika. If you attack Liam yourself, the conditions can't be met..."
As she spoke, she turned the chainsaw blade and swung at Kurapika himself.
Kurapika jumped away quickly. Hey, are you taking this too seriously?!
He looked at Liam across from him. This guy was actually quite leisurely, still sitting with his legs crossed like it had nothing to do with him. Behind him was the eight-armed black shadow, which had become hostile to Kurapika because of the attack, its eight arms shaking restlessly. In addition, there was Shizuku chasing after him with a chainsaw vacuum. Kurapika suddenly felt exhausted. He dodged halfheartedly a few times, then simply gave himself a small cut and flicked a drop of blood toward Liam...
Reflection lunged like a beast escaping its cage, swallowing the flying blood in one gulp.
The next second, Reflection disappeared from Kurapika's sight.
Shizuku stood on the chainsaw-shredded sofa and looked at Kurapika curiously.
Liam watched as the black eight-armed Reflection wrapped around Kurapika's body like berserker's armor. It opened its ferocious mouth and stripped away a layer of aura from the top of Kurapika's head, devouring it instantly.
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